Band 8.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 8.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-19

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The plans below show a college cafe before it was redesigned and how it looks now.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The plans below show a college cafe before it was redesigned and how it looks now.

Student answer (Band 8.0)

The two plans illustrate how a college café has changed following a redesign.

Overall, the café has been significantly modernised, with a greater variety of food and drink facilities as well as a new outdoor seating area. The kitchen, main seating area and toilets have remained, while the two staff dining rooms have been removed to create space for new services.

Before the redesign, the kitchen was located in the top-left corner of the café, next to a single serving area for all food and drinks. The centre of the café mainly consisted of tables and chairs. There were also two separate staff dining rooms in the upper-middle section. On the right-hand side, there was a bin near the entrance, while the toilets were situated in the bottom-right corner.

Today, the kitchen remains in the same location, but the original serving area has been replaced by a hot-meals counter. A salad bar has also been added along the left wall. The former staff dining rooms have been replaced by a takeaway-food counter and a coffee bar. Although tables and chairs still occupy most of the central area, additional outdoor seating is now available along the bottom of the café, together with a barbecue facility. Finally, the original bin area has been replaced by recycling bins, while the toilets remain in approximately the same position.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.5

The response fully satisfies all requirements of Academic Task 1. The student provides a clear, well-developed overview that highlights the main changes, noting that the café has been modernised with expanded food and beverage facilities and an outdoor seating area. Key features of both plans are accurately reported and contrasted, such as the transformation of the former staff dining rooms into a takeaway counter and coffee bar, the addition of a salad bar and barbecue facility, and the introduction of outdoor seating. The visual data is read correctly throughout without any major omissions or factual errors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.5

The response is logically organized with a clear overall progression. It begins with an introductory paragraph, moves smoothly into a concise overview, and then details the past layout before concluding with the present changes. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different temporal phases of the plan. Cohesive devices such as 'Before the redesign', 'Today', and 'Although' are used naturally and effectively to guide the reader through the spatial comparisons without any mechanical repetition.

Lexical Resource — Band 8.0

The vocabulary used is precise and well-suited to describing maps and architectural changes. The student demonstrates a good range of functional language, using terms such as 'modernised', 'redevelopment', 'counter', and 'occupy'. Collocations are natural ('single serving area', 'central area', 'outdoor seating'). Word choices are accurate, and there are no spelling errors. The lexical range easily supports clear communication of spatial relationships and functional shifts between the two plans.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 8.0

The response exhibits a wide variety of sentence structures, mixing simple, compound, and complex sentences effectively (e.g., 'Although tables and chairs still occupy most of the central area, additional outdoor seating is now available...'). Grammatical control is very strong, with the correct use of past tenses for the initial plan and present tenses for the current layout. The text is virtually error-free, with accurate punctuation and consistent control over complex syntactic forms throughout.

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